Reckless

Chapter 16 Part 5

Present Day

Character POV: Roxanne

I haul her up, and she puts her free hand on the lip of the tunnel into the ground, hauling herself up and over the lip. It's then that I look around to see what has occupied Drusilla. Drusilla is sprawled on the ground, slowly getting herself to her feet. I turn my head in the direction that the golden light came from, and I stall when I see none other than Arsinoe-- Zahra-- advancing towards us. Her hands are engulfed in more of that crackling golden energy, her hair down and uncovered. Her eyes are lined with kohl, and she's wearing a white dress with a broad collar, her duck bracelet on her arm. It's like she just stepped out of the pages of ancient history, like Drusilla has.

A coughing noise drags my attention back to Drusilla, to where she's forced herself to her feet on swaying legs, her black eyes filled with hate as she looks at Zahra. Blood is trickling from the corner of her mouth as she snarls at Zahra as she advances towards us, "So much for not having any of your powers, right Arsinoe?" Bitterness coats her words.

Zahra drags her golden gaze to me as she says, pulling her arms back and readying to launch another attack at Drusilla, "My gods actually listened to me. Now, get to getting my sisters back." She fires her golden light at Drusilla, and the Roman barely has time to put her hands up to deflect the blow. She staggers back a step as Zahra smiles darkly at seeing Drusilla off-balance.

My mind is racing to try and figure out what Zahra means. I turn towards Ariadne and tell her, holding her face in my hands, "Get your ass off of this field right now. Zahra and I have this. This is witch business." I think for a moment that I am going to have to argue with her, but Ariadne just shuts her mouth and pulls away from me. She mouths "Be careful" before she speeds away from me, gone in a movement so fast that I can't even really track it.

Once the love of my life is off of the field, I sit there as the sounds of electricity slamming against barriers echoes throughout the clearing. I'm bathed in golden and white light as Zahra lobs her golden energy at Drusilla to be met with lightning back. Zahra has no biological sisters. Her sisters have always been the other witches. And if Drusilla has been taking the lives of the other witches and absorbing their powers, there's a good chance that she sent the other witches down into the underworld like she just attempted to do with Ariadne.

I just moved the vampires attachment to Ariadne by altering the flow of the magical pathways. A small idea forms in my head that I could unwind the ball of pathways that is clustered in Drusilla and pull up the witches she killed, gifting them back their powers and in-so-doing, giving them back their immortal lives. In that split second, while Drusilla is distracted by Zahra, I close my eyes and reach out a hand into the half-open tunnel and my other hand towards Drusilla, who is so busy with Zahra that she doesn't think to put up a barrier against me.

The moment I close my eyes, I can feel them. I can feel the presences of all of the lost witches, feel them clawing up from the pit below as they demand to have back what was theirs. Slowly, I start to unwind the ball of pathways from Drusilla. I hear a gasp, which tells me to keep on trying. I feel one in my hands that echoes a scent of incense, so ancient it almost terrifies me. I stretch it into the void, and then I feel something latch on like a fish on the end of a fishing line. I give it a tug, opening my eyes. Suddenly there's another woman standing before us, her black hair styled in the Ancient Egyptian fashion, her similar golden eyes to those of Zahra landing on Drusilla as she smiles wickedly. The main marker of difference between the two is that Nitocris' skin is much darker, a shade of brown that's almost black. I whisper under my breath, "Nitocris. . . " She turns towards me at her name, her face imperceptibly softening.